Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Planned Parenthood and Mormon Church Spar Over Intellectual Property Rights

Life Site News reported yesterday on the interesting intellectual property dispute that played out on the sidelines of last week's Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City. The Symposium draws over 1,500 attendees to talk about Mormon history, theology, politics, culture from a variety of Restorationist perspectives. One of vendors at the event was Planned Parenthood, which often uses humor in its messaging. The group created a special run of condoms to distribute to attendees with packaging carrying the letters "CTR" on a shield. This mimics the design of a ring which since 1970 has been given to every Mormon child to remind them to "Choose the Right." After receiving complaints, the Symposium sponsors allowed Planned Parenthood to distribute the condoms, but not to display them. A Mormon Church spokesperson said that Planned Parenthood had not sought permission to use the design which belongs to the Church.